Grafton pulls Village Dairy Store's beer and wine license

GRAFTON — Selectmen voted Tuesday to revoke the beer and wine license of a convenience store after police reported it had sold alcohol to a person under age 21 for the fifth time in eight years.

Amjad Chaudhry, owner and manager of Village Dairy Store, 167 Main St., South Grafton, may appeal the decision to the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission within five days of receiving written notice of the town's decision.

Selectman Craig Dauphinais, who made the motion, said Police Chief Normand A. Crepeau's recommendation to suspend the license for 60 days, with alcohol sales retraining for all staff, didn't go far enough.

He said, "For me, revoking the license is the only thing that makes sense. I don't have a comfort level with the owner that he's going to do the right thing."

According to Detective William Kuck, police conducted a sting June 27 with an underage informant after the department had received numerous complaints about teenagers buying liquor at Village Dairy.

Under police-videotaped surveillance, the informant was able to purchase wine at the store with no difficulty.

Mr. Chaudhry said at the license hearing, "This did happen, but it's not my store's policy not to check the ID or sell under-age."

He said employees had been trained to not sell alcohol to minors. The 19-year-old clerk who sold the alcohol was preoccupied with a credit card issue at the time, the manager said.

"We try to comply 110 percent," Mr. Chaudhry said. "I'm very sorry my help did it. He failed me and I failed myself because I'm the one who hired him to do the job."

Selectman John Dowling, who chairs the board, said, "The fact is there's been numerous complaints and people know you can go down there and buy liquor. It sounds like it's bigger than one time."

He said to Mr. Chaudhry: "I think the message is, some of the words you're saying are really meaningless."